Inmates in the Elkton, Ohio, federal prison strip down old computers, salvaging valuable bits of gold and platinum, Fortune magazine reports. Prisoners clad in protective suits hammer at monitor screens and cathode tubes, the smashed glass destined for sale to reprocessors. Computer recycling is difficult, labor-intensive work; Elkton gets business from government agencies and schools because it can compete with Third World wages. Other state and federal prisons have gone into business, making products for companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s.

Cash-strapped state governments are struggling to cover the annual cost of incarceration, which has swelled to $40 billion, and to find enough work to keep prisoners occupied. Led by Edwin Meese, former U.S. Attorney General now at the Heritage Foundation, and Morgan Reynolds, one of the first President Bush’s economic advisors, conservataives have lobbied for real prison employment by the private sector–not just make-work projects like stamping license plates or building courthouse furniture. Businesses get cheap, reliable workers; inmates receive valuable job training and earn more than they would in traditional prison jobs; and the government offsets the cost of incarceration and keeps jobs and tax dollars in the U.S.

The number of inmates employed by the private sector is still small: 10,000 working for about 250 companies. But that is up significantly from a mere handful ten years ago. Meese estimates that companies could easily employ ten to 20 times as many inmate workers.

While some companies have embraced prison labor, others are reluctant. Dell canceled a contract with Federal Prison Industries after an environmental group’s charge that the prison operation was a “poor example of worker health and safety.”

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“Prescription opioid misuse and use of heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl are intertwined and deeply troubling problems,” says director Tom Frieden of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The heroin-related death total topped the number of gun homicides by 10 cases.

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The award honors individuals in the media or media-related fields who have advanced national understanding on the 21st century challenges of criminal justice. It will be presented Feb 16, 2017 at a dinner at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

"Prescription opioid misuse and use of heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl are intertwined and deeply troubling problems," says director Tom Frieden of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The heroin-related death total topped the number of gun homicides by 10 cases.

The program aims to identify troubled probationers who aren’t complying with requirements that they remain drug free. It gives them the option of receiving methadone treatment while in jail. Then they are handed off to an outpatient treatment program on their release from jail. It's called a success because four of the original seven participants are still taking part.

Ronald Bert Smith Jr. was pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m. His attorneys asked the Supreme Court to hear the case because a judge had overridden the jury's recommendation that Smith get a life prison term. Four justices voted to delay the execution, but five votes were needed to do so.